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Abstract

It is useful to build agents to mediate in the use of complex .i.software systems;. To understand some dimensions of mediating agents, this thesis presents an agent design for the automatic use of a computer algebra system (CAS). Such an agent must take a task specification from the user and produce a plan for achieving the task while also producing a plan for the CAS. In particular, I use the Soar architecture to build an agent for using Mathematica, guided by a study of protocols of human users of Mathematica. The general design principles for mediating agents suggested by the particular agent for Mathematica include a blackboard-style control structure using a production systems architecture, a dual-space planning function, integration of planning and execution, and mechanisms for automatic knowledge acquisition through environment interaction.